The present invention relates generally to hand tools, and more particularly to a power tool for crimping steel studs and tracks during construction framing.
Steel framing has become increasingly popular for residential and commercial buildings due to the increased strength and termite resistance of steel relative to wood. However, the process of assembling steel framing is time consuming and expensive relative to the material costs. As a result of these increased labor costs, steel framing has been slow to achieve wide-spread acceptance.
Presently steel studs and tracks are assembled either vertically or horizontally with each of the studs screwed to the track. In horizontally constructed walls, the studs and tracks are positioned on the floor relative to one another and screws are placed in one side of each track to secure each stud to the track. The wall is then flipped over and screws are inserted into the other side of each track. In vertically constructed walls, the laborer must work on each side of the wall to screw the studs into the tracks on the top and bottom of the wall. The top is difficult to reach and the bottom requires that the operator bend or kneel on the floor.
Crimping tools have also been utilized to connect the studs to the tracks. However, manual crimping tools require a lot of strength and endurance to operate on large jobs and power crimping tools have proven to be heavy and cumbersome. The inefficiency of prior methods for assembling steel studs to the tracks has contributed greatly to the labor costs for steel frame construction.
Given the aforementioned drawbacks, it is desirable to provide a power crimping tool that alleviates much of the labor costs associated with steel framing
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hand-held crimping tool that can be properly aligned while providing the user with a broad range of workable engagement angles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a rotary drive tool with a releasably attached extension arm that is rotatable about its axis.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a jaw arm assembly that is pivotally attached to the extension arm.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a crimping tool that achieves one complete crimp cycle for every trigger activation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hand-held crimping tool that has a self-contained power source.
In order to obtain these and other objects, the present invention provides a crimping tool including a rotary drive unit and an extension arm. The extension arm includes a pivotally attached jaw assembly attached thereto. Upon activation of the rotary drive tool, the gear configuration in the extension arm translates a rotary input into actuation of the jaw assembly. The jaw assembly includes a first piercing jaw arm and a second receiving jaw arm for cyclical engagement therewith. A logic circuit limits an activation to one complete crimping cycle of the jaw assembly.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood however that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.